St Mary's Church is a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

, Lancashire, England. It is the first Catholic Church in Morecambe to be built after the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. It is located on the corner of Lord Street and Matthias Street in the centre of the town. It was built in 1895 and designed by

Pugin & Pugin Pugin & Pugin ( fl. 1851– c. 1958) was a London-based family firm of church architects, founded in the Westminster office of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812–1852). The firm was succeeded by his sons Cuthbert Welby Pugin (1840–1928) a ...

in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

History

Construction

On 21 April 1895 the foundation stone of the church was laid by the Bishop of Liverpool Thomas Whiteside. The architects were

, an architectural firm that composed of

Cuthbert Welby Pugin Cuthbert Welby Pugin (2 June 1840 – 25 March 1928) was an English architect and businessman. Life and career He was the son of Augustus Pugin and his second wife, Louisa Burton, making him Pugin's fourth child and second son. He was the brother ...

and Peter Paul Pugin, brothers of

E. W. Pugin Edward Welby Pugin (11 March 1834 – 5 June 1875) was an English architect, the eldest son of architect Augustus Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Louisa Barton and part of the Pugin & Pugin family of church architects. His father was ...

and sons of

Augustus Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

. They built the church in the

with a capacity of 300 people. The construction was done by the contractor Charles Walker of Preston and the cost was £3,000.

Developments

In the 20th century, with the growing population in Morecambe, St Mary's Church was no longer large enough to accommodate the growing local Catholic

congregation A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: *Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administra ...

. So from St Mary's, new churches were built. These churches were St Patrick's Church on St John's Road in

Heysham Heysham ( ) is a coastal town in Lancashire, England, overlooking Morecambe Bay. It is a Heysham Port, ferry port, with services to the Isle of Man and Ireland, and the site of two Heysham nuclear power station, nuclear power stations. Demogra ...

in the 1920s, the Good Shepherd Church, which moved into a former

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

chapel in

Torrisholme Torrisholme is a suburb of Morecambe, Lancashire, on the North West coast of England. In the 2001 census, the Torrisholme Ward had a population of 6,758 living in 3,118 households, decreasing marginally to 6,755 at the 2011 Census. Torrisholme ...

in 1962, and Holy Family Church in Westgate in 1979.

Parish

St Mary's Church, with St Patricks Church, the Good Shepherd Church and the Holy Family Church comprise the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of St John Henry Newman in Morecambe. St Mary's Church has two Sunday Masses at 8:30am and 10:30am. St Patrick's Church has two Sunday Masses at 6:00pm on Saturday and at 6:30pm on Sunday in Polish.Parishes
from Diocese of Lancaster, retrieved 3 February 2022

References

External links